If you’ve been thinking about joining FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) but have held back paying the $60 bill for your initial membership, here’s a deal. How about signing up with FMCA for just $40? A $20 savings on an FMCA membership is available—with a slight catch.
The catch—with its own benefit
Yeah, everything has a catch, doesn’t it? The catch here is you’ll need to be a member of the TSD/Open Roads fuel discount program. If you haven’t heard of it, the program offers fairly steep discounts on diesel fuel purchases from participating truck stops. For example, as we write this, diesel in Quartzsite, Arizona, is selling for an average of $4.78 per gallon. The lowest credit card price in town is $4.49 at Terrible Herbst. Open Roads members can roll into Love’s and will pay $4.21 a gallon.
While Open Roads says it will soon offer discounts for gas purchases, at this point, the program only covers diesel sales. Even so, you can sign up for Open Roads at no cost—no signup fees, no membership fees. Once you have your membership, you can take advantage of the $20 discount on an FMCA membership, and be ready to get discounts on gas when Open Roads rolls out that part of the program. Check out the whole story on Open Roads in our piece This diesel fuel savings program is for real.
Why do some get an FMCA membership?
Why do people sign up for an FMCA membership? Here’s the pitch presented in the release from Open Roads: “FMCA membership includes an emergency medical evacuation program; a subscription to Family RVing magazine; access to the FMCA University; and discounts for RV insurance, Roadside coverage, mail forwarding, lithium-ion batteries and mobile internet service offered through Tech Connect+. One of the greatest benefits of FMCA membership is the opportunity it provides for enjoying the fellowship of friends from all over the country who share a common interest in RVing.”
Sean Chickery, who produces the podcast Beyond the Wheel, signed up for an FMCA membership. While a membership might not meet all your needs and expectations, he wrote about the positive aspects of the outfit in a blog post. One of the major benefits, in Chickery’s mind, is the club’s Emergency Assist program. He wrote, “Perhaps the best benefit of the club’s membership. You are automatically enrolled in this benefit with no additional cost to you.” From cash reimbursements for expenses if your rig breaks down, to paying to get you flown home if a doctor orders it, to getting your RV back home if you can’t drive it—these are the kinds of benefits of the assistance program.
And here’s how to get it
So how do you get your FMCA membership with a $20 discount? As an Open Roads member, head over here to join. Be sure to use the promo code TSD20 at checkout to save $20 off the cost of your FMCA membership.
##RVT1095
We just returned from a NM-AZ-NV snowbird trip. We paid $3.44/gallon for diesel at Fry’s in Tucson with an 80 cent Kroger discount. Paid $4.09 for diesel in Las Vegas (NM), Gila Bend, and Kingman; drove through Quartzite without stopping; used a 20 cent Kroger discount at Smith’s in Lake Havasu City for $3.79 diesel; and filled up at the Black Mesa Casino on I-25 north of Albuquerque with $3.78 no-discount-needed diesel. Gas Buddy, Kroger, and Murphy’s (Walmart) are our best RVing friends!
I question why so many companies will offer great discounts to get a new customer, but don’t seem to care anything about keeping their long time customers.
I had always heard it is much cheaper to keep an existing client than it was to get a new one.
So why not offer a discount to existing customers based on the number of years you have been a customer.
Loyalty should count for something.
We, especially DW, are not rally-people, but we are members of FMCA and have been since we took up RVing in 2016. I support the organization even though we take advantage of very few of the provided benefits. For me FMCA is one of the last vestiges of the “good old days” of RVing — when Camping World did not sell RVs, Good Sam held rallies, Motorhome and Trailer Life both existed, and Gaylord Maxwell held “Life on Wheels” conferences. (Although we took up RVing after many of these ceased, I was blessed by learning some of this time while voraciously researching RVing before we bought our first RV.)
We RV’d through all that time and it was WAY better than today, IMO.
I have been a member of TSD Open Roads for a few years now. It’s a great program!
I agree FMCA seems different with the focus still on serving its membership instead of profit. I used the $20 Open Roads discount a few days ago to join FMCA and will let my GS expire since they now just use their members for profit and have mostly defunded anything “club” related. Thanks, Marcus. You single handedly ruined a once wonderful organization for your own greed.